


Let Her be Better

by Washedawaycloud



Series: Ripples of Bad Wolf [6]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Dreams, F/M, Gen, Grief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:47:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29031153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Washedawaycloud/pseuds/Washedawaycloud
Summary: 'Midnight' conversations with the Corsair
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Corsair/Ninth Doctor, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/The Corsair
Series: Ripples of Bad Wolf [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2050176
Kudos: 3





	Let Her be Better

He dreams of her the versions of the Corsair who was his wife. They’d been dialed back so many times during the war. Twisted through Lindos overproduction and orders from the Matrix as so many others of their rank had been. The Renegades could be tortured in such a manner, especially those who had avoided the war as they had. He remembers her beauty as six, cream and coffee coloring, with a penchant for showing off assets he wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t so intimately tied to her.

Younger, older, their bond strained but never broke.

 _He_ broke it. He destroyed her. Now she visits him when he can’t put off sleep any longer. When he is so tired that time takes pity on him, and doesn’t throw him any curveballs.

Rose doesn’t understand why the next morning he is angrier at the universe than normal. He can’t bring himself to tell her, to shatter her gentle devotion to him. He needs it, needs her faith in him to keep going more often than he’d like to admit.

Kiera would have his hide for daring use the young lady so. And he doesn’t blame her. Rose deserves so much better than him.

‘You’re hurting again,” she whispers, laying down with him among the cadonwood forest while he’s hanging in Van Stratten’s vault. “You could break those bonds, I know your strength –“

“Deserve it,” he rumbles, and looks over at her, wondering which her he will be gifted with. A face he’s never seen before. Deeper coffee tone, lighter earth-toned hair, brown eyes so sad it makes his hearts stutter.

“Oh love,” her accent, he’s never heard this one on her before. It’s not from anywhere on Gallifrey. “I’ve been down this road, losing me, it’s not your fault.”

He whispers her name in song and her eye soften but are no less sad. She whispers his name back to him and it is the vow he will never let go of, no matter how long he lives. They are tied together in a way he and Patience had never been.

“I can’t let you go.”

“So don’t.” She cups his face, all sharp cheekbones now, and patrician nose. “But your girl, Rose, don’t let her wither under a shadow like me.”

“She’s not you.”

“No. She’s better.” A sharp smile on her lush lips. He misses her. The quiet moments when they could just be. Time spent suspended between seconds. Laughter in amidst tears and screams for fallen friends. His hearts strain with it.

“Let her be better than I was for you. My hearts. You are why they yet still beat.”

“Doctor!” He wakes with a snap, to see the human girl named for a flower in his doorway.

“You were screamin’,” she tells him, voice shaking, amber-brown eyes wide.

“Sorry Rose. Bad dream is all.” He smiles that dopey smile he’s so prone to for her, to mask the pain and swings himself from the bed. “Let’s get a cuppa, and you back into bed.”

**Author's Note:**

> I swear I will get into where the Corsair is, if she's still alive, how this will work out, soon


End file.
